‘The Princess and the Frog’ could do better

By LESLIE BOW

As the mother of a royalty-worshipping little girl, my feelings about Disney’s first black princess are mixed. From the media coverage of “The Princess and the Frog,” you’d think it was a historical moment akin to President Obama’s election.

To the cynical, Tiana represents not a historical first, but the next in a long line of cash cows. Black scholar W.E.B. Du Bois’ novel “Dark Princess” envisioned panracial global solidarity; Disney envisions global market solidarity, a uniform hunger for cartoon underwear.

On the other hand, the movie’s integrationist vision is potent; even a black girl can become a princess.

What I like about “The Princess and the Frog” is what law professor Patricia J. Williams likes about Oprah Winfrey’s magazine. “Compared to almost any other women’s magazine on the market,” she writes, “O presents an image of black women as comfortably integrated, pleasantly mundane.”

Disney’s forte

“The Princess and the Frog” represents a pleasant fantasy of integration, of racial mainstreaming. As any parent who has watched “High School Musical” over and over can attest, the Disney Channel takes the lead in multicultural casting. No longer a purveyor of racist caricature, Disney has caught on to the fact that diversity is now our national brand.

But can we chart racial progress one princess at a time? We need stories that make us look at the world in new and more just ways. And we find that in “The Princess and the Frog,” of a sort. One should see inner, not outer beauty; one should not be prejudiced against those who look different ... and by that I mean small, green and slimy. As Mama Odie sings, it “don’t matter what you look like” except, of course, when you’re being targeted by evil frog catchers.

Rainbow question

But didn’t we already know that it’s not easy being green? In American society, it’s being black, red, yellow or brown that’s the rub.

In this day and age, I am not simply looking for more positive racial role models for my daughter. Nor am I looking for stories that assure me that color doesn’t really matter.

Aside from a veiled reference to the difficulties Tiana might face as a woman of her “background,” ultimately the lesson that she has to learn is not about society but about character — oddly, that she has to loosen up, value relationships and have some fun.

My daughter enjoyed “The Princess and the Frog.” She doesn’t care whether or not the heroine is black or white. But she still wants her princesses to be slim and pretty.

And that, as we know, is another issue.

X Leslie Bow is a professor of English and Asian-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.